The good: Lighter, slimmer, and sleeker update of the original PSP; AV output for video and game playback on TVs; improved load times for games; retains all of the impressive media and online features of the original PSP; deep lineup of great game titles that offer better graphics than Nintendo DS games.

The bad: Despite improvements, problems and annoyances remain: UMD load times still poky compared to Flash-based DS games; volume levels still less than optimal; limited gameplay options via video output; USB charging option is cumbersome; screen is still too reflective and a magnet for fingerprints; subtle redesign missed the opportunity to add even more features.

The bottom line: While it may not be a must-have upgrade for existing PSP owners, a host of subtle improvements make the latest Sony PSP (aka the PSP 2000) an even better deal for anyone looking for a solid portable gaming and multimedia device.

Specs: Product Description: Sony PSP Slim & Lite - Handheld game system; Form Factor: Handheld; Media Type: UMD (Universal Media Disc) See full specs >>

Price range: $169.99 - $202.29

Our original review of the Nintendo DS listed only one 'We don't like' characteristic: 'Somewhat bulky'. Whether it was because of early fan discord or because Nintendo has a propensity to redesign its handheld systems, the aforementioned complaint was addressed with a signature Nintendo remodelling. The Nintendo DS has been slimmed down and brightened up, and it's been injected with a serious shot of style.

Rechristened, the DS Lite attempts to make the same fashion statement for videogame systems that the iPod did for MP3 players. Like the iPod, the DS Lite is available in two colours, white and black, which is exclusive to Europe. For the time being the US only has the white version, while Japan boasts navy and 'ice blue' versions. For the impatient and iPod-white averse, the system is completely region-free and supports multiple languages, so you could import a Japanese navy DS Lite and have no problem playing all of your European games.

The DS Lite is released in the UK and Europe on 23 June with an RRP of £99.99. It can be pre-ordered from various online retailers now.

Design
The Nintendo DS Lite, like the original Nintendo DS, is a portable gaming system with two vertically tiered screens. On the bottom is a touch screen that allows you to use a stylus or a finger for anything from selecting options to moving characters. There's also a normal face-button layout that allows a more standard method of control.

The system plays its own proprietary cartridges (which are somewhere between SD and CompactFlash cards in size), in addition to its near-full backward compatibility with Game Boy Advance (GBA) titles -- the system will not play multiplayer modes of GBA games, unfortunately. While DS cartridges are much smaller in capacity than the Sony PSP's UMDs, they play without the often unbearable load times of Sony's proprietary format.

As its name suggests, the Nintendo DS Lite is a much more compactly designed system -- at 133 by 72 by 21mm when closed and weighing in at 217g, it's 39 per cent smaller and 21 per cent lighter than its predecessor. The rounded corners are more finely tapered, and the top and bottom sides are symmetrical, avoiding the underbite-like look of the original's oversized bottom half. It's a much more pocket-friendly system than the original DS. Despite the smaller overall size, though, the trademark twin screens have the same dimensions.

The layout of the DS Lite is largely similar to that of the Nintendo DS, with some slight, beneficial changes. The top half of the clamshell still houses the stereo speakers. They're centred on either side of the upper screen, and despite being smaller than those on the original DS, they're just as loud. The bottom screen is a little more conducive to touch, but it feels flimsier -- almost as if you've kept the protective thin-film screen that overlays many LCDs when they ship from the factory. To the left of the touch screen is the D-pad, which is about three-quarters the size of the original, but just as efficient.

The four face buttons (X, Y, A and B) are essentially the same but feel a little more pronounced than those of the original DS. No longer half-ovals on top, the start and select buttons are now tiny circles on the bottom. The power button has moved from just above the D-pad to the right side of the system. It's a welcome change, as the original looked exactly like the select and start buttons and was situated in the same area on the opposite side -- which led to the occasional turn-off-instead-of-pause blunder.

The front of the system is basically unchanged -- from left to right, the volume control, the GBA game slot and the in-line-enabled headphone port are in the same spots. Formerly slightly above the front of the system, the microphone has been moved to the hinge between screens. In instances where you need to look at the bottom screen while using the mic, you may need to retrain yourself.

The back end of the system is basically the same. The only thing that's moved is the stylus holder, which is on the back of the system, to the left of the power switch. It looks a little more discreet and the stylus fits more snugly. The left and right triggers are slightly smaller, but like the face buttons, they're more pronounced and easier to press. The DS cartridge slot is centred at the top, and the AC power port is off to the left. The system includes an AC adaptor, two styli that match the Lite's colour, and a smaller wrist strap that -- annoyingly -- does not include the thumbpad of the original.

The GBA slot has undergone some slight changes. In place of an empty cartridge slot, Nintendo includes a plastic cover that looks like a half-size GBA game. While it seems like it'll often be lost (think battery covers), it looks pretty sleek and serves to obscure one of the few design flaws of the DS Lite: GBA games stick out of the cartridge slot by about a centimetre, whereas the original DS fit the cartridges perfectly. But it doesn't impede gameplay in the slightest, and it's not the ugliest-looking setup. And considering that the DS is backwards compatible with hundreds of GBA games, it's a small price to pay.

A bigger problem with the DS Lite is that its high-gloss finish is a magnet for fingerprints. Imported navy blue DS Lites we've seen have been constantly smudged, so Nintendo's failure to include even a rudimentary cleaning cloth or carrying case is notable. Although this doesn't really apply to the white DS Lite, it will be true of the black version. Hopefully some protection options will soon be available. On the plus side, the clamshell design means the DS Lite travels well, limiting the scratches and marks to the exterior while the two screens remain fully protected.

Features
Introduced about a year after the system launched, Wi-Fi compatibility on the DS is surprisingly solid for a free service hosted by a company known for its aversion to online gaming. Whether on the original DS or the DS Lite, the Wi-Fi setup is simple, as the system can spot most wireless connections. If there are none nearby, you can create one from a broadband-connected PC by attaching the Nintendo USB Wi-Fi Connector to it. Without an external online network such as Xbox Live, finding friends is unwieldy -- you have to enter 12-digit 'friend codes' for each game for which you wish to create a buddy list.

Playing against nonfriends is hit-or-miss -- you won't find a game to join as fast as you will on an online console such as the Xbox 360, but as long as you're on a popular game during a reasonable hour, you should be able to locate competition. Over the course of an early evening, we were able to find several opponents in Tetris DS. The microphone lends itself to voice chat, but as of right now, only Metroid Prime: Hunters employs between-match chatter. Local wireless is, of course, much more reliable, with the added benefit of allowing multiplayer via a single cartridge. GBA multiplayer games won't play head-to-head over the wireless connection, and the lack of a link cable port means you can't have a wired bond to older GBAs or Nintendo's GameCube unless Nintendo releases yet another adaptor that interfaces with the DS Lite's proprietary power port.

The games for the DS Lite are of decent graphical quality -- better than the PS1/N64 but nowhere near Xbox/PS2/GameCube standards. It also pales in comparison to PSP games. Where the DS Lite really earns its stripes is the innovative quality of its titles. Whereas PSP games feel much like their console cousins, the DS Lite's dual- and touch-screen setup allows for some truly unique gameplay, whether it's drawing your own Pac-Man in Namco's Pac Pix or performing surgery via stylus in Atlus's Trauma Center: Under the Knife. That said, not many of the other third-party software developers are up to the challenge of taking full advantage of the DS's capabilities. For every Nintendo-produced hit such as Nintendogs or Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, there are several barely updated GBA ports or slightly downgraded PSP ports -- neither of which make much use of the touch- and dual-screen technology.

The DS systems lack the video and audio playback and Web-surfing functions of the PSP, at least in Europe. Nintendo-supported solutions for both -- the Play-Yan media player and Opera Web browser respectively -- have or will soon appear in Japan, though the European release status of both products is currently unknown. We will update this review accordingly when and if the products arrive here.

Performance
The DS Lite has four brightness settings, up from two on the original DS. At the darkest setting, the DS Lite is just as bright as the original DS, at its max, it's almost as brilliant as the Game Boy Advance SP. Playing a GBA game on both systems, we noticed that the DS Lite's colours were slightly washed out in comparison. The DS Lite's backlighting makes the graphics stand out in DS games, though. The colourful Tetris DS, for example, is significantly enhanced by the brightness of the newer system.

We tested the DS Lite's battery against the original DS's. Playing the exact same game (Super Mario 64) at each system's brightest setting and maximum volume, the DS Lite lasted for roughly 5 hours, while the DS conked out after 6 hours, 45 minutes. Recharging the system back to full power took 3 hours. Like the original, the DS Lite goes into sleep mode when the system is closed.

Until the release of the Nintendo Wii, its new console, the company seems intent on focusing its creative juices on the DS rather than the near-dead GameCube. If you still haven't picked a portable gaming system, the DS Lite is definitely worth picking up if you like its growing list of quirky, original titles. If you've already purchased the original, the improvements aren't significant enough to warrant shelling out another £100 unless you're truly put off by the bulkiness of the original. If you're in the market for a portable system with more mature -- albeit less original -- titles and decent media playback capabilities, then the PSP may be worth picking up for £80 more.

Nintendo essentially invented the handheld-gaming market back in 1989 with the original Game Boy, a clunky black-and-white portable that rocketed to success, thanks largely to the availability of the addictive Tetris game. The company continued to refine the portable concept, going colour in 1998, then sizing things down to the more compact Game Boy Advance in 2001. Two years later, the company released the SP model, which, with an improved screen, a smaller size, a clamshell design and rechargeable battery, was hailed as a nearly perfect portable device by many gamers. Now, Nintendo is retooling the Game Boy yet again with the Game Boy Micro.

Design
The £69 Nintendo Game Boy Micro -- or GBM, as it has already been dubbed by the Nintendo faithful -- lives up to its name. It's a minuscule 102mm wide, 51mm tall and 18mm deep -- that's roughly the size of an iPod Mini or a small mobile phone, but bigger all around than Apple's "impossibly small" iPod nano. The horizontal design is a departure from the squarish clamshell of the SP -- in fact, the Micro looks more like a downscaled version of the old Game Boy Advance. To the right of the 51mm (2-inch) screen is a four-way digital control pad, while the two main A and B control buttons are to the left. Two shoulder buttons along the top edge round out the main controls. The Select and Start buttons are below the screen on an angled border.


The Nintendo Game Boy Micro is significantly smaller than the SP, but the slightly wider design makes it more comfortable to use

Game cartridges slide into the bottom side of the Micro. (For the record, the Micro accepts only the recent Game Boy Advance titles, not the larger Game Boy Color or original Game Boy cartridges from decades past.) The slot is flanked on either side by the power switch and -- hallelujah -- a standard 3.5mm headphone minijack. The latter corrects the most glaring flaw of the Game Boy Advance SP, which needed a small dongle to connect standard headphones to its proprietary port. If you don't have headphones, the small speaker on the Micro's front face will suffice. A tiny rocker switch on the right side controls volume. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery is found under a screwed-down cover on the rear and can be replaced by the user when it eventually gives up the ghost.

The SP has two small expansion ports on its rear, but the Micro has only one: a new proprietary connector, centred on the top edge between the shoulder buttons. At present, it's limited to providing a connection for the AC power adaptor to recharge the battery, but it will eventually be used to connect to some forthcoming Micro-specific accessories. Nintendo plans two multiplayer link cables (for head-to-head Micro versus Micro and Micro versus SP connectivity) as well as a Micro version of the SP's wireless adaptor. So, while none of the existing SP accessories will work with the Micro, it should eventually have the same multiplayer capabilities as its predecessor, assuming you're comfortable with extraneous link cables and bulky wireless adaptors.

The Nintendo Game Boy Micro ships in four colours: blue, green, pink and silver. But those are just the unit's body colour -- the front is actually a swappable faceplate, like a mobile phone or the Xbox 360. While the Micro loses the clamshell design that provided screen protection for the SP, the faceplates cover the screen, so cosmetic scratches and scrapes are restricted to the surface. Expect to see a variety of 'collectible' faceplate packs from Nintendo and other third-party vendors in the future.

Features
Aside from cosmetic variations, then, are there any significant differences between the Micro and the SP? In a word, no. The Micro is just the SP in a smaller package; it's not intended to deliver anything new in terms of gameplay or features. Even battery life is basically even, about 10 hours between charges. It comes down to which Game Boy delivers a better user experience. And while the answer is more subjective than absolute, we came down on the side of the Micro. Despite its overall smaller size, the Micro is actually 19mm wider than the SP. The broader form factor combined with its lighter weight -- 88g (with cartridge) as opposed to the SP's 150g -- yielded better overall ergonomics. Gaming sessions on the Micro were more comfortable and less fatiguing on the hands and fingers.


The Micro's screen is an inch smaller than the SP's, but much brighter and sharper

Performance
At just 51mm (2 inches), the Micro's small screen appears to be a liability; it's fully 33 per cent smaller than the SP's 3-incher. View both units side by side, however, and your eyes will immediately gravitate to the Micro. The screen is so much brighter that few will miss the larger SP screen. Instead, you'll be wondering how you could've lived with that comparatively dull, washed-out image for so long. On the other hand, fans of text-heavy games -- RPGs, for instance -- may find the Micro's screen is just too small.

More sophisticated gamers may want to splash out the extra £20 to upgrade to the Nintendo DS -- it plays a growing list of popular titles (Nintendogs, Advance Wars Dual Strike, Castlevania), but its beefy size means you won't be slipping it into the pocket of your jeans. By contrast, the Nintendo Game Boy Micro is the perfect go-anywhere gaming machine. It's an easy recommendation for children, for whom it will no doubt provide hours of Pokemon- and Dragon Ball Z-fuelled delight. Adults with a favourite Zelda, Mario or Advance Wars title will find the Micro a worthwhile travel companion as well.

If you're in the market for a new Palm and you have a bit of gamer in you, Tapwave is hoping you'll consider its Zodiac entertainment console, a groundbreaking PDA that doubles as a portable gaming device. The Tapwave Zodiac1, which has less built-in memory (32MB) than its more expensive twin brother, the 128MB Zodiac2, costs £150. That's a lot of scratch for the Game Boy Advance audience but not an outrageous sum to pay for a Palm featuring an impressively sharp, high-resolution screen with Landscape and Portrait orientation; dual expansion slots; ATI's new handheld graphics accelerator; and a built-in analogue game controller.

However, with any gaming platform, what really counts is the software, and the list of compelling Zodiac-enhanced Palm titles is pretty short. Ideally, that will change with time and eventually give deep-pocketed gamers a reason to make the Zodiac1 their next handheld -- assuming they're not holding out for the release of Sony's PSP.

Design
While slim, the 143 by 79 by 14mm Tapwave Zodiac1 is a bit oversize compared with most Palms. But it's definitely one of the slickest-looking PDAs out there, and it makes Nintendo's Game Boy Advance SP seem like a toy. The slate-grey exterior (coloured slightly lighter than the Zodiac2) and the gaming-oriented buttons will compete for your attention, but the sharp transflective display, which offers a high resolution of 480x320 pixels and 65,536 colours, will catch your eye first.

We didn't have any serious complaints about the device's gaming ergonomics; the analogue joystick, the trigger buttons, and the gaming pad all felt very tactile. Significantly, the Zodiac1 has the ability to view images horizontally or vertically. But at 178g, the Zodiac is heavier than a Game Boy Advance SP, so you'll have to give your hands a break every so often.


The Zodiac ships with an AC adapter, a USB cable, headphones, a wrist strap, and a flip cover.

The dedicated Home button calls up the Zodiac-customised main Palm screen, which lets you easily navigate among the usual Palm organiser features; launch various apps, including multimedia programs for playing games, listening to music, viewing photos and video, and reading e-books; and access other data. The Zodiac may have the best-modified Palm interface we've seen; it's superior to that of Sony's CLIEs. This excellent functionality is especially handy, as there are no standard quick-launch keys for the address book, the calendar, and the to-do list.

We liked having a back-panel clip for the stylus, but it pops out a little too easily, and you'll very likely lose it. We're unconvinced you could make do with just the included detachable flip cover; a £150 device merits a full protective sleeve. Rest assured that Tapwave sells a separate case, along with a wireless keyboard and several other Zodiac accessories. The box also comes with a USB syncing/power cable, earbuds, and a wrist strap. You can add a Wi-Fi card, a plug-in digital camera, or another SDIO peripheral (a number are currently under development) via one of the SD/MMC expansion slots.

The Zodiac1 has a sealed-case design. As always, we would have preferred the ability to replace the rechargeable battery -- just in case. Also, the recessed audio jack may be a tight squeeze for headphones with a wider than average plug.

Features
Running on a zippy 200MHz ARM processor and a modified version of Palm OS 5.2, the Tapwave Zodiac1 ships with a whopping 32MB of onboard memory, 12MB of which are reserved for system use. As you'd expect with a device called an entertainment console, the Zodiac comes loaded with multimedia applications. Along with the classic Address Book, Date Book, and To Do List Palm OS features, you get Graffiti 2.0 for handwriting recognition, Palm Reader for text, and Kinoma Video Player and Producer for video with sound. The Zodiac also accepts most existing Palm programs.

In place of RealOne Mobile Player is Tapwave's own nicely designed MP3 player, and the company created equally pleasing image-viewing applications that take over for Palm Photo. You'll also find the WordSmith Word-document viewer and Inkstorm, a Bluetooth wireless chat/whiteboard program. In addition, Tapwave throws in the Power One graphing calculator and a nifty clock/alarm. The MP3 file of your choice serves as your wake-up call, blaring from the built-in Yamaha stereo speakers.

It's difficult to avoid comparisons to the Sony PSP (which might be why Gizmondo Europe was so reluctant to send out review units), so we may as well get it out of the way: the Gizmondo doesn't come close to touching the PSP. It won't even challenge our increasingly neglected Nintendo DS for second place.

In hardware terms, it looks three years too late, sitting next to the Game Boy Advance as something you'd be embarrassed to get out in public. On software terms, it's sorely lacking a 'must-have' title, and the games are highly derivative (although support from EA is imminent). The PSP and DS are offering games that rival the home consoles, whereas Gizmondo currently offers many games that originated on the Internet.

Despite all this, the Gizmondo has a certain homegrown British charm and is one of the few handheld consoles that can lay realistic claim to being portable. It has some promising features that need software support to gain consumer interest, but in the meantime the Gizmondo looks likely to remain a curate's egg for the gadget fan and an urban myth for everyone else.

Design
If the PSP is the iPod of the gaming world and the Nintendo DS the Creative Zen, then the Gizmondo is like something from Oregon Scientific -- interesting features but next to no style.

The two shoulder buttons may protrude like Shrek's ears, but they feel more comfortable than the unresponsive, clicky ones on the PSP. The Gizmondo also feels a lot more durable, with its rubbery black casing absorbing all the shocks of backpack carriage without taking damage. In a nice touch, the whole screen is indented and therefore less prone to scratching.

Most handheld consoles of late have not been very portable, but the Gizmondo slips into your pocket with ease. It also means that the screen is about half the size of the PSP's, and isn't in a widescreen format. The main face buttons are compact enough to be covered completely by your right thumb, which is far more comfortable than the PSP's design. They've clearly been modelled on Sony's classic PlayStation template, but as this is a 'mulitmedia' device, the main action buttons have been replaced with play, stop, rewind and fast-forward labels. It makes no difference in-game, of course, but if you are playing MP3s or movies, it makes it easier to naviagate.

The D-pad is adequate and crucially it favours prolonged use, but the Gizmondo doesn't have an analogue control -- making it the only major handheld console without this form of interface. We also despise the placement and size of the menu buttons -- they're situated along the top so you have to adjust your hands to access them, and even if you manage to overcome this crime against ergonomics, you have to push them hard to register and their shape is unnaturally thin.

On the rear, the VGA camera has been intelligently placed at the top, meaning that you're unlikely to have your finger over it when taking a quick snap. In terms of quality, it's very much like a phone camera (although the better camera phones are now offering 1- or 2-megapixel cameras). There's no button to take you directly to the photography menu quickly, so if you see David Beckham in the street and want to get a quick snapshot, you'll have to ask him to wait around for a minute while you wrestle the console into photography mode.

When you're charging the battery in the off mode, you can't turn the console on. But if you have the console turned on, you can charge up at the same time. If you use the console a lot you'll need to remember not to let the battery wear down completely. Like a mobile phone, though, the battery will vibrate as a feature of certain games, which is a vaguely embarrassing nuisance when you're playing on the bus.

Gizmondo's branding is very strong, with a nicely packaged unit, and when you open the box you find you get a few free downloads from the Web site. The SD format is a logical way of storing games but it also makes them quite fiddly and prone to getting lost. Luckily, each game comes with a Gizmondo-branded storage case for two cards.

The handheld games console business is a ruthless one. We've lost count of the number of failed handhelds and only Sony, with its billions, has been able to make a dent in Nintendo's unquestioned dominance. On the surface, the little-known GP2X, complete with its idiosyncratic use of Linux, looks doomed to failure, but can its apparent Achilles heel be its saviour?

Strengths
The GP2X is the spiritual successor to the GP32, also from GamePark Holdings. Aesthetically, it sits somewhere between the Sony PSP and the Sega Game Gear, which obviously isn't a bad thing. It feels great in the hands, although its build quality is obviously not in the same league as its more established rivals.

The unit has four controller buttons on the face, two shoulder triggers and a small thumbstick on the left side. Below this is a volume rocker for adjusting the sound levels of the tinny, front-facing speakers, and in the middle of it all is an ample 89mm (3.5-inch) screen.

There's a sliding power button on the left, which is pretty much impossible to press accidentally, so there's no chance of inadvertantly losing your progress in a game. At the top there's an SD memory card slot plus a 2.5mm headphone jack, and at the right there are DC power and mini-USB ports. At the bottom of the device there's a port labelled EXT, which can be used to connect the GP2X to an external monitor, or to install additional memory.

The GP2X is more than just a handheld games console. From the device's main menu you can play video, listen to music, view photos, and read ebooks. It's compatible with a variety of file formats straight out of the box including DivX/XviD, MP3, OGG, WMA, JPEG and GIF.

Behind the scenes, the GP2X uses a stripped-down version of the Linux operating system, which for the most part is a tremendous strength. This, in effect, makes it a handheld computer on which you can run a wide variety of Linux applications, or even create your own.

More impressively for gamers, the GP2X can run a variety of emulators. It'll let you run games designed for arcade machines, SNES, Game Boy, PlayStation and just about everything else. Unfortunately you'll need to own the original games in order to play them legally, but there are some freeware or 'abandonware' titles you can play without fear of becoming a software pirate.

Weaknesses
For all its potential, the GP2X doesn't have the feel of mainstream product. You simply cannot pick it up and play with the same reckless abandon as a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Actually getting it to do anything requires a fair bit of tinkering, as well as (occasionally) some hair pulling.

We were slightly disappointed at the amount of internal storage on the device. Only 64MB of NAND memory is available, so having an SD memory card is a necessity. We recommend having at least 512MB, but if you intend to use the device as a platform for watching full-length video you'll need at least double that.

The 89mm screen isn't as good as it could be. It isn't as bright as we'd like, some text is illegible, and the display flickers at the faintest sign of a low battery. This in itself can be a common occurrence as the unit only lasts a few minutes on AA alkaline cells. It's almost not worth bothering to slip a couple of Duracells in -- you're better off with rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which will last anywhere up to 6 hours.

The GP2X's speakers are also utterly rubbish. They're nowhere near loud enough, so listening to music in a noisy environment is usually out of the question unless you're prepared to wear headphones.

Conclusion
Ultimately, the GP2X will only appeal to users who are prepared to invest time and effort -- it's simply not a pick-up-and-play platform. Those looking for immediate thrills are better off using the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Having said that, we think users with a geeky side will get plenty of satisfaction from the GP2X. There's a wealth of exciting old-school games available for its various emulators, and the possibilities for creating your own on-the-go applications make it worthy of consideration.

Here is this system that I found X-Box 360 Portable







Here Is A PSP3 and it will never exist!!!!







And here is something else PSP2

Sony is at it again. After failing for years to come up with anything resembling a successful digital Walkman to capture a nice chunk of either the MP3 or the nascent digital video markets, the company recently announced the Mylo, a new "portable broadband device" targeted at college students.

On the surface, the Mylo--which stands for my life online--is a pretty cool little gadget. It's got a sharp, colorful 2.4-inch screen for viewing MPEG-4 videos and JPEG images, built-in Wi-Fi, instant messaging, Web browsing, e-mail access, and Internet phone calling via Skype. The only problem is that Sony is initially setting the Mylo's price at $350--pretty ridiculous, considering you can get a smart phone right now that does everything the Mylo does--albeit without the Mylo's 1GB of built-in memory--for the same dough or less (with a new service plan). And while college campuses are currently among the few places that have fairly ubiquitous Wi-Fi coverage, out in the real world, where Wi-Fi availability is still spotty at best, the Mylo loses a lot of its value.


The $350 Sony Mylo: DOA?

I don't mind that Sony is out there creating sexy-looking new gizmos. That's what it does, and it gives me something to write about. I just wish the company would have more discipline in creating gizmos that are priced right. Or smarter yet, build upon successful and relatively fast-growing platforms such as the PSP's, which is capable of doing exactly what the Mylo does--and maybe doing it even better--for less money.

The Sony PSP costs $199. It's not perfect, but all things considered, it's one of Sony's finest efforts in recent years--and it's supported by a business model that makes sense: affordable hardware subsidized by game sales. Built-in Wi-Fi? Check. Web browser? Check. Plays MPEG-4 videos and JPEG images? Check and check. Built-in keyboard? Ah, there's the rub. A virtual one, yes; mini QWERTY, no. And the PSP isn't exactly pocket friendly either, though it is compact and does have a bigger, wider screen that's more conducive to video watching and Web browsing than the Mylo's.

To be fair, Sony is gradually beginning to exploit the true potential of the PSP as both an entertainment and a communications device. Gradual has several connotations, however, and Sony's flavor tends to lean toward the slow variety, rather than the steady. The first few PSP system upgrades arrived weeks apart; now they come month to month and seem to be relatively minor tweaks. Let's pick up the pace, boys. How 'bout a little Skype for the PSP? I mean, if they can do it for the Mylo, why not for the PSP? Oh, that's right: the PSP already has VoIP functionality built into a game called SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo; there's even a decent headset that you can pick up for less than $20. So all Sony needs to do is write a little software app and let the college kids jabber away.
The missing keyboard is a harder fix. The Logic 3 keyboard was cancelled before entering production, but it was supposed to snap on the PSP's bottom and snake a cable around the back to its sole USB port. Of course, it would've helped if Sony had put that USB jack on the bottom of the device instead of on the top, but I'd be game for a semikludge solution in the interim, before we see a PSP2. I like the idea of one of those almost-full-size, fold-up keyboards that were once a popular accessory for Palm handhelds. Like the Palm version, the keyboard would have a built-in stand for the PSP, so you could prop it up at just the right angle for glare-free viewing.

I have a few other suggestions, but rather than drone on, I'll keep it brief, and summarize.